Parrot’s RC Aircraft Looks Amazing, Inside and Out

Parrot’s AR.Drone looks like any other four-bladed, foam*-framed remote-control quadricopter. But inside it’s packed to the gills with electronics that make it far more sophisticated than most.

“The AR. Drone is earth-shattering,” gushes iFixit, which disassembled the drone after testing it. “It has blown away every drone expert we’ve talked to. It’s not just a toy: it’s a phenomenal piece of engineering that manages to solve some very difficult software problems in order to take flight.”

Start with the controller: Instead of using a pair of joysticks, the AR.Drone utilizes an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad app, which optionally lets you steer the drone via its onboard VGA camera. It’s a bit like you were a tiny little homunculus, sitting inside the drone, peering out at the world through its wide-angle lens.

Inside, the drone’s circuit boards sport a 16-bit microprocessor, an ARM CPU, Wi-Fi module, memory, and a gyroscope. It also has an ultrasound altimeter that helps the drone stay stable up to 6 meters above ground. The four brushless motors propel the rotors in opposite directions (two go clockwise, two go counter-clockwise) at up to 41,400 RM.

Its 1,000 mAh battery will last for about 10 minutes. That’s more than enough time to play virtual reality games, zip around the house terrorizing your siblings, or take a quick aerial recon flight above your house.

We saw a demo of the Parrot AR.Drone at CES (video link), and we’re happy to see it’s now on the market. It’ll cost you, though: One drone is $300. And you’ll need two (plus two iPhones) if you want to play the augmented-reality first-person shooter shown in the video below.